Revolutionary Route

Stamford Advocate ^ | December 18, 2005 | Keach Hagey

[Pharmboy]

One hundred sixty-four years before American-led Allied forces landed on the beaches of Normandy to liberate France from the Germans, French troops landed in Newport, R.I., to help liberate the American colonies from the British.

With the powerful British Navy controlling the coast, the French Army, led by Jean Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, count of Rochambeau, marched inland on its way to meet George Washington's army and fight the British in Yorktown, Va. They won -- securing American independence -- but 5,000 Frenchmen died in battle.

"There were more Frenchmen killed at Yorktown than American revolutionaries," said Serge Gabriel, a Greenwich resident and native of France who has devoted the past five years of his life to commemorating Connecticut's role in his countrymen's historic march. Although no battles took place in Connecticut, it was one of nine states that the army marched through.

The memorializing is part of a national celebration that began last summer and ends next summer, marking the 225th anniversary of the Battle of Yorktown. As part of the celebration, Connecticut is working with the National Park Service to name the 600-mile, nine-state road the French and American armies followed, called the Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route, a national historic trail.

Gabriel, an American citizen who served in the French and American armies, serves as the Connecticut chairman of the project. In that volunteer role, he travels throughout the state, meeting with people in each of the 11 towns the French army passed through on its way south.

Collaborating with the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism, he is working to erect outdoor historic panels in each town detailing their contributions to the war effort. Two panels have been erected, in Lebanon and East Hartford.

[Pharmboy]

Rochambeau's contribution was much more significant because he was an experienced general leading a professional army, with real uniforms and a level of discipline that Washington's motley crew lacked.

I take umbrage at this sentence. While the Continental Army may have been a "motley crew" early on, by 1778 they were a disciplined fighting unit.

[xcamel]

What's next? 5000 statues of John Kerry?

[Pharmboy]

The Washington Family Coat of Arms

Please Freepmail me to get ON or get OFF this RevWar/Colonial History/Gen. Washington ping list

[Pharmboy]

I hear Kerry's ancestors were for the Revolution before they were against it...

[wizr]

Sounds like another excellent way to throw away taxpayer dollars.

[Pharmboy]

Well, we'll have to disagree on that one. Anything that keeps the memory and ideas of the American Revolution alive is money well spent AFAIC...

[CatoRenasci]

Indeed. I think the phrase is Keach's not Serge's. I know Serge from the Greenwich ad-hoc group that puts on a solemn Independence Day ceremony here in Greenwich, and he's really a wonderful man, devoted both the the US and France -- well, he did come from France. As much as all of us -- me perhaps foremost -- bash the French, it's good to remember that at a time we needed help, the Kingdom of France provided it, and the blood of some of France's best families was spilled in our cause. Even if French help had more to do with French interests than generosity towards us, it would be niggardly of us to begrudge the Kingdom of France our thanks and gratitude.

Of course, I believe we have paid our debt to the French nation more-than-in-full during their misunderstandings with the Germans during the last century, and that it is now the French who are ingrateful debtors.

By our acknowledgement of, and continuing gratitude for, the valiant efforts of the King of France's army and navy in support of American independence, we show our own greatness and the mean spirit of the modern French.

Our town band, in the independence day ceremony, make a point of playing at least one famous French military march (this year Le Regiment de Sambre et Meuse) to honor their contributions.

[Pharmboy]

Yes...I took that quote as one made by an ill-informed Keach.

Thanks for filling in more of the story along with observations about Serge from your own CT point of view. It's contributions like yours that make FR the great site that it is.

Merrie Christmas to you and yours...

[wizr]

The schools should be keeping our ongoing history alive. The French can come up with the bucks for this project. We sent them Disney didn't we.

[Diva Betsy Ross]

I wonder if the fact that I lived in Stamford for awhile has anything to do with my opinion.. perhaps there is something in the water...I digress.

As much as I am one for the occasional dig at the French, they did make very important sacrifices and contributions to the United States,(be it many many years ago-but they are undeniable.)

I agree it is important to honor those sacrifices in a public way and to highlight the history of the American Revolution. Believe me it pains me to think about, considering the attitude of the current French leadership,but- without the aid of France in our early fighting years- where would we be?

Who knows.

[JimRed]

There were more Frenchmen killed at Yorktown than American revolutionaries,"...

And the favor has been repaid, twice in the past century. Next time, let the Germans keep France.

[SunkenCiv]

A "motley crew" that conducted itself so well, that it lost fewer troops at Yorktown. ;')

[aculeus]

Thanks for the ping.

[Pharmboy]

There is no question that we would not have won without the French. Without Comte de Grasse's fleet blockading the Brits, Yorktown would not have been ours. They also supplied military engineers (one of the biggest needs of Washington's army early in the war) and .50 calibre French muskets (the Brits used the Brown Bess which was .75 calibre) aside from the ground troops.

[Pharmboy]

A side note re Yorktown: as an assignment of honor, Alexander Hamilton asked Washington (the General called him "Alex") if he could lead his brigade along the most dangerous route. Washington accorded him that honor. Hamilton was not only a genius but a great and valiant soldier.

[Pharmboy]

Agreed...remember that quote from The Great War: "Lafayette, we are here."

[Pharmboy]

Always my pleasure...

[dropzone]

True, the French played a closing role our winning the Revolutionary War. But that's only one chapter in history. French altruism has absolutely nothing to do with it. Remember that it was the French that incited the Indian Nations to massacre colonists in the French Indian War. After after the the American revolution, we were at war with France 1798-1800 (the Quasi war). France caused us many trade headaches as our nation was getting started.

The US colonies were just a pawn in the ongoing British/French antagonism. I adjust my appreciation accordingly.

It was the British War with France that enables the Louisiana Purchase and the British victory Waterloo that finally put an end to European designs on the New World. Our enemies merely canceled each other out in the end.

[Pharmboy]

No argument there...although I would add is that they could have supported us with money, supplies, weapons and ammunition and stopped short of ground troops. But, when Washington was president, he came to dislike the French immensely (remember Citizin Genet, etc.), and Jefferson was the major apologist for the French in our new country.

[Sparky1776]

The Conanicut Battery, Newport Harbor